By Sorie Sudan Sesay, Freetown.
The run-off election for the Presidency has been fixed
for Saturday September 8, this year, the Chief Electoral
Commissioner of the National Electoral Commission,
Christiana Thorpe(photo) announced this morning at the
commission’s press office at the British Council premises here in Freetown.
Thorpe said campaigning takes effect immediately after
the announcement today and ends on the 6th of
September, two days before the elections.
Thorpe said she hoped the run-off elections will be
free from violence and that her commission will do
everything possible to ensure that the run-off is free,
fair and transparent, in line with local and international expectations.
She also thanked stakeholders in the elections such as
the Political Parties Registration Commission (PPRC),
the police and the military to mention but a few.
The total votes tallied according to Thorpe is
1,839,208 reperesenting 100%.
Categorising the votes by Presidential candidates,
Thorpe said Ernest Bai Koroma of the opposition All
People’s Congress (APC) garnered 815,523 votes which is
44.3% whilst Solomon Berewa of the ruling Sierra Leone
People’s Party (SLPP), got 704,012 votes which is
38.3%. Charles Francis Margai of the People’s Movement
for Democratic Change (PMDC) got 265,499 - 13.9%
and Andrew Turay of the Convention People’s Party
(CPP) received 1.6% with 28,610,00 of the votes cast.
Others are Amadu Jalloh of the National Democratic
Allioance (NDA) who secured 1% with 13,748 votes. The
NDA has already gone into an alliance with the APC ahead of
the run-off. Barba Kandeh Conteh of the Peace and
Liberation Party (PLP) got 0.6% with a total of 10,556
votes and Abdul Kady Karim of the United National
People’s Party (UNPP) got 0.4% with 7,260 votes cast.
The UNPP’s performance surprised many people considering the fact that they
ended up second and went into a run-off with the SLPP in the 1996
elections that saw the SLPP taking over government
from the National Provisional Ruling Council (NPRC), the military junta that overthrew the APC in 1992.
Thorpe said the run-off was necessary because none of
the parties was able to garner 55% of the total votes cast as stipulated by
the 1991 Constitution of Sierra Leone.
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